1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which can be attached to a power saw, or which can be incorporated into a power saw during its assembly, in order to disengage and separate an end section of an elongated piece cut by this saw at a length wherein the length is controlled by the positioning of a stop which previously supported this elongated piece.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
During sawing operations the danger exists that the cut-off piece is carried along by the moving saw blade and possibly jams. The presence of a stop generally does not provide protection against such motion.
A displaceable stop is moved by sliding or gliding in the direction of removal or of approach of the plane of the saw blade on the saw power source to which the invention applies. Frequently, the stop is moved in a graduated fashion, and is solidly blocked in its position when it is removed from the saw blade by a desired distance.
This stop remains blocked in this position during the execution of the whole saw operation. At the start of this operation, an end section between the stop and the saw blade is still strongly connected to the rest of the elongated piece which is solidly fixed, in most cases in a vise. As the sawing process progresses, the end section is less and less well held in place by the part of the diminishing section which connects the end section to the elongated piece. At the same time, the end section is restrained without play in a longitudinal direction between a side face of the saw blade and the face of the stop against which the elongated piece is supported. The friction, which is inevitably generated between the saw blade and the end section in the course of the sawing operation, results in the consequence that a transverse force is applied to the transverse end of the end section which is in contact with the saw blade. Toward the end of the sawing operation, this transverse force becomes sufficiently strong to overcome the resistance of the part of the diminishing section which remains to be sawn. It happens frequently that the end section is brutally and forcefully pulled from the elongated piece due to the forced rupture of the part which remains to be sawn. Sometimes, the end section can be projected and can hurt a person. Sometimes the end section can assume a canted position and can be jammed between the stop and the saw blade. Such jamming generates a risk of damaging the saw blade. In many cases, the sawn end section is simply displaced relative to its initial position before the sawing process but its final position cannot be predicted. This is disadvantageous to the installation and to the proper functioning of an automatic apparatus for successive removal of each sawn end section because such apparatus requires that the sawn end section assume at all times a precise and a predetermined position.